Terra nova – Why Fertile Soil is the True Treasure of the Universe

Reto Speerli – Terra Nova – Why Fertile Soil is the True Treasure of the Universe, Festival Science on Stage 2026, Klaipeda, Lithuania

In the Terra Nova project, children in grades 3–4 become researchers on a Mars mission. Their task is to find out what humans need in order to make life possible on another planet. The storytelling around the “Mars Expedition” motivates and redirects their view back to the best learning model for life in space we know – our own planet.

Through experiments, the children explore what humans and plants need to survive: light, water, air, nutrients, and above all, soil. They build hermetospheres – closed mini-ecosystems in glass jars where water and air circulate in a natural cycle. As a model, they use the Swiss Alps: after the Ice Age, lichens – a symbiosis of algae and fungi – were the first pioneers to colonize bare rock. Inspired by this, the children attempt to create artificially fertile soil from “Martian dust” (sterilized decorative sand). They observe how, in different mixtures of sand, water, organic material, and soil fungi, life slowly begins to emerge.

Their experiments with plants, fungi, earthworms, and soil reveal that what we often call “dirt” is, in truth, life itself. They come to understand that soil is a living system – the foundation of all life. In the end, they see ordinary earth with new eyes: as the most valuable thing we possess.